Caerys.
I was trying to be casual. Revilion asked what I was doing, and I told the truth---looking at instances of sapling disappearances. I had no intention of telling him why. On a whim I read him the description of the one I was currently pawing through, one that bore no similarity to any of the saplings noted in the journal.
Except he recognised it. Gave me information I hadn’t given to him yet, and the sick feeling in my stomach grew. The sapling, he said, he’d found broken. Mangled in all sorts of horrible ways, crawling through the grass. Afraid. Escaping something. Revilion had tried to help him, tried to take him to the nearest outpost—but they weren’t allowed in. The guards were afraid they were nightmare court, but I think it’s simpler to say they saw sylvari and refused o open the door. The sapling died, but not before he mentioned the box.
Being shut inside one. He had all of the injuries consistent with it. Every word Revilion quoted from the sapling fit what Vhan and I had seen in Gendarran. Except he wasn’t in the journal. Just on a warden’s report as missing.
I’m not sure what to believe now. Either the master had others that weren’t noted, or---or there’s more. More masters, more saplings.
Revilion is going to get me a meeting with a minister from the area. Hopefully she can give me some names, some idea of who might be behind this sort of thing.
Before I allowed myself to my own tortured sleep, I said a small prayer. Dream well, Caerys, our lost little brother. You’re with Mother again now.